WordWeb

Chances are that when writing a document or reading one you will stumble on a word that you do not recognize or unsure how to spell.




WordWeb is a free download that when installed will allow you to display the definition and synonyms of any word in any document (on or off-line). Simply hold the Control key + right mouse click the word and the WordWeb Window pops up with the definition.


“This thesaurus/dictionary can be used to look up words from almost any program. In addition to displaying sense definitions and synonyms, WordWeb can find sets of related words. The database has more than 150,000 root words and 120,000 synonym sets, many proper nouns, pronunciations, and usage tags. WordWeb works off line, but when online you can also quickly view Web references such as the Wikipedia encyclopedia.” (CNET Download.com)

Online Grapher

“Graphs and charts are great because they communicate information visually. For this reason, graphs are often used in newspapers, magazines and businesses around the world. NCES constantly uses graphs and charts in our publications and on the web. Sometimes, complicated information is difficult to understand and needs an illustration. Other times, a graph or chart helps impress people by getting your point across quickly and visually. Here you will find four different graphs and charts for you to consider. Maybe it will help explain what you are trying to show. Use homework problems, things you have a special interest in, or use some of the numbers you find elsewhere on this site. Have fun! http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/graphing/classic/

Create a Graph is a free online graph maker which allows you to create; Bar, Line, Area, Pie and XY graphs. By following the straight forward steps you move along the tabs, Design, (Direction, Shape, and Style). Insert the Data, including the title the labels etc... Preview your work and then Print it or Save it (in different formats so that you can include them in your presentations)!

Very simple and easy to use with a wonderful graphic interface!

Didn’t you know? Facebook is forever

A quick follow up on the issue of digital fingerprints, tattoos....

“I know a computer science professor who runs the same Facebook experiment every semester. He invites his students to stand up in front of the room and show everyone their Facebook page on the big screen. No one has ever taken him up on the offer.

Why? They’re embarrassed, of course.

Moments later, the irony sinks in. Every one of them seems happy to share all those funny photographs, witty Wall postings and status updates with everyone on the planet. They just don't want to do it in public, in person.” Posted: Friday, February 20 2009 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan in “The Red Tape Chronicles”

Online –Calculators

From the creators of online-stopwatch.com comes online-calculator.com. Here you will find an online calculator, not yet available in stand alone mode but it can be used in full screen view.For those interested in having simple way to physically show numbers from 1 to 50, there is an Online Abacus.
For those who like to throw a few darts around but are frustrated by the Math involved in it, there is a totally free online Darts Calculator. “This advanced Dart Calc has been updated - and will also work out your darts finishing! Is this the BEST online Dart Calculator on the internet? We think so :-) Check out our Darts Calculator. It’s easy to use, free, and you can use it full screen.” http://www.online-calculator.com/darts-calculator/

Online Stopwatch:

Online-Stopwatch.com is a free website that allows you a quick and easy way to time your projects. Users have the option of a “Countdown clock” or a “Stopwatch” with a variety of skins. If you download the swf version you will be able to run the timers in stand alone mode from your desktop (as long as you have Adobe’s Flash Player working on your desktop). The different formats are available on the download page.

Original Online Stopwatch App

Countdown Timer

Split Timer / Lap Time

Bomb Timer

Clock Timer

Egg Timer

Virtual Human Body Tour

Most of us have experienced the wonders of Google Earth, the different layers that allow you to visit virtual sites, including sites that have been rendered in 3D using Google SketchUp. (E.g. Ancient Rome).

Now imagine being able to do the same with the human body, i.e., view the skeletal system in 3D, full view or close up of a particular part of the human body, rotate vertically or horizontally. Now add in the muscular system, the respiratory system, nervous system and many others. Hiding or rendering a layer to a transparent stage is but a few options.
· “Created by Argosy Publications, an animation and illustration firm that specializes in medical and scientific animations, the Visible Body is a neat interactive web animation tool that lets users explore the human anatomy and all its various systems. Created by the company's specially trained biomedical visualization engineers over the past few years, the Visible Body is an accurate portrayal of the human body that we're told is already being used in classrooms.” Read Write Web
· “Argosy's Visible Body is the most comprehensive human anatomy visualization tool available today. This entirely Web-delivered application offers an unparalleled understanding of human anatomy. The Visible Body includes 3D models of over 1,700 anatomical structures, including all major organs and systems of the human body.” (Visible Body)

View the Demo video on YouTube

Create a World Travelling Multilingual Avatar

In the virtual worlds and games, players create avatars that represent them.  Imagine, going to the Web and creating your own avatar, adding text that it would speak, or even adding your own voice.
  
Well Voki is an online tool that will allow creating an alter ego, dressing it up the way you feel and have it say what you’ve written or recorded.

Voki allows you to select your character from a variety of styles, political, famous, animals, oddballs, comic and more.  Once you’ve selected your character you’ll want to customize its look, clothing, facial traits, hair and accessories including some bling.  Finally you can change the background including animated ones.

Now that you have your alter ego you can now get it to speak. Type it in a text (somewhat limited in length), select a reader, (Paul (US), Tessa (South), Fiona (Scottish) are but a few examples) you can even add effects to the audio! 

If you prefer you might want to record your own voice (maximum of one minute), or even upload an audio file, the possibility or endless. 

Did I mention that your avatar is a world traveller?  Yes when selecting the voice one of the options is language, English, French, Basque, Greek or Chinese there are over 25 languages to select from.

Once you’ve publish your Voki you can a link via email to friends, or even post it to your site.

This is a great tool for all; imagine having your Voki reading your spelling or dictée words!

Who’s Surfing the Net? Generations Online in 2009

“Over half of the adult internet population is between 18 and 44 years old. But larger percentages of older generations are online now than in the past, and they are doing more activities online, according to surveys taken from 2006-2008.

Contrary to the image of Generation Y as the "Net Generation," internet users in their 20s do not dominate every aspect of online life. Generation X is the most likely group to bank, shop, and look for health information online. Boomers are just as likely as Generation Y to make travel reservations online. And even Silent Generation internet users are competitive when it comes to email (although teens might point out that this is proof that email is for old people).”

PEW/INTERNET Pew Internet & American Life Project Report by Sydney Jones Susannah Fox

Dictionnaire Français avec audio/French Audio Dictionary

Rare sont les outils en lignes qui permettent l’utilisateur d’entendre le texte visible à l’écran d’ordinateur.  L’utilisateur peut faire emploie d’un outil qui lira le texte (text to speech) tel que « Vozme », « Natural Reader » ou même « Kurzweil ».

MediaDico est un dictionnaire compréhensif qui donne à l’utilisateur de lire la définition du mot et la voix est très claire et compréhensible. 

 

En plus de donner la ou les définitions du mot, il est possible de chercher les synonymes, connaître la conjugaison des verbes, trouver des citations qui se rapportent au mot, trouver des expressions et même traduire du Français à l’Anglais et toutes ces options offrent la fonction de lecture. 

Un outil indispensable pour enseignants et étudiants de français (langue maternelle ou seconde).

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Here is a creative way of encouraging writing.  The Newspaper Clipping Generator is an online web tool that will allows the user to create an article that is then published as a news paper clipping.  Once generated you can download the image (as jpg) and insert it in your blog, journal or etc... The Newspaper Clipping Generator automatically expands (vertically) to add longer text (I was able to write 16 full lines of texts in the story box).

Have fun publishing your work!

Free Text to Speech

VozMe is a free online text to speech site that allows you type or paste in text which will then be read by your computer.  This is not the best of voices but a great way of create a text to speech mp3 file that you download and save to your computer. 

Here is the above text saved in the mp3 format.

Gabe

Creating Your Own Fonts, FREE!

"YourFonts.com is a FREE online font generator that allows you to create your own TrueType fonts within a couple of minutes. Go make your own handwriting as a font!"

Creating your own font is easy. Just follow the 7 steps:

1. Print the Template
   
2. Complete the template (hand written in black ink is recommended), Upper case, lower case and even special characters
   
3. Scan and save the template
   
4. Upload your template
   
5. Preview your font
   
6. Download your font
   
7. And Install on your computer

Factors Affecting Technology Use in Schools

Here is an interesting article (2006) by Christopher D. Sessums, discussing and summarizing the article of "Factors Affecting Technology Use in Schools". (Full article here)

Christopher D. Sessums "is the Director of the Office of Distance Education in the College of Education at the University of Florida and a Ph.D. candidate focusing on teacher professional learning/development and social software/media affordances."

Helping Struggling Readers

Text to speech has come a long way since Mac's original "Talking Moose" in 1986.

"The Talking Moose was originally created by Dr. Steven Halls in Canada. Version 1.0 was published in 1986 for the Apple Macintosh. It was the first animated talking agent on a personal computer. The program featured an animated moose that would appear at periodic intervals with some joke or witicism, and would sometimes comment on what the user was doing. The moose could also 'speak' what the user typed in to it." (Wikipedia) To learn more about the Moose, this article from WIRED magazine gives a good summary.

Now users have access to a multitude of readers, from the basic Microsoft Reader to higher end products such as Kurzweil. Along with the different readers are a multitude of Voices that can be modified to meet the needs of the users.

NaturalReader 7.0 is a wonderful FREE tool that will allow users to experience how test-to-speech technology works. "The Free version allows you to experience listening to your emails, web pages, reports or any text on your PC. There are no charges for downloading, using and redistributing the free version of the software." NaturalReader 7.0

NaturalReader 7.0 offers several features that are easy to use. In the "Main Window" view, cutting and pasting of documents is v

ery simple and allows the user control in the speed in which the text is read. This view will also highlight the sentence being read and the each individual word is highlighted when read. 

In the "MiniBoard" view, the "...floating MiniBoard offers another option for you to listen to text without disturbing your reading on the screen." This MiniBoard will allow the user to read any text on your computer.

For more information, go to NaturalReader 7.0's information page and for a free demo. Watch the full video and at the end you will have access to other presentations, the Speech and Application videos are available in the free version.

Gabe

Jamming with JamStudio

As most of us are experiencing, most education boards have or are clawing back on some of the resources personnel available to educators.  For many educators, teaching music is not a natural skill. 

JamStudio is a free (to play and save), but also has a paid subscription that will allow you to save and download your projects. 

“Learning Music Can Be Fun...Writing and exploring music is fun when you have the right tool- you found it!... Amateurs and pros alike need a musical sandbox to try out ideas unlimited variations and “what if” versions can be explored instantly in a wide range of styles” http://www.jamstudio.com/Studio/index.htm

Here is a short composition by Clarence on YouTube!

Have fun jamming with JamStudio!

Digital Biography: Beware of what you post on the Web!

Here are a few updates on the topic of “Online Privacy” that was posted on my Blog (November 21, 2008).

Elizabeth Church, in the December 23 Globe and Mail (Where everybody knows your teenaged musings) explores the ramifications of Web postings on the Web.  “Seth Tee got his first Hotmail account in Grade 4. By high school he was posting content on the Web. Now, at the sober age of 22, the University of British Columbia student realizes his teenage musings are just “a Google search away” for the rest of the world, and there is not much he can do to take them back.”   In an effort sensitise students to the potential pitfalls of Web postings, UBC (University of British Columbia) has developed the “digital tattoo” project.  (Visit: http://digitaltattoo.ubc.ca/).

To help users understand the consequences of posting personal information on Web, specifically, on Social Networks sites, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has a short 3 min video: Privacy on Social Networks: What does a friend of a friend of a friend need to know about you?

On Youtube:

Educators should read Ericka Mellon’s article “Teachers face dilemma with Facebook; Educators find benefits, pitfalls when adding students as friends on the social networking Web site” posted in the December 20^th Houston Chronicle.

Rethinking Computers in the Classroom

Is having a computer on every desk the solution to increase testing scores or is providing the necessary training and revising the curriculum to reflect the real world the solution?

"Obama wants more PCs for kids, and Harvey Milk Academy is one school doing just that. But a 21st-century, computer-focused curriculum is the real challenge"

"What's needed, say educators and technology advocates, is a 21st-century curriculum that harnesses PCs and the Internet to equip kids with skills needed in the modern workplace, like critical thinking, analysis, and communications." 

Rethinking Computers in the Classroom

An article by Aaron Ricadela (Business Week, Technology December 16, 2008) is a must read for educators!

Ecofont good for all

What is the true cost of printing?
When you are printing the true cost per page is determined by several factors, the cost of the paper, the type of printing (colour or B&W) and the amount of ink used. If you need to print your email messages, map directions or other such items and you know that you will be throwing them away there are ways to save money.
The greenest way to go would be to refrain from this excessive printing. But what if you don’t have a GPS and you need those driving directions from Google or Yahoo maps?
One way to save resources (ink and money) would be to use a font that requires less ink when printing. Ecofont, a creation of Colin Willems uses the Swiss cheese approach to printing. The font is based on the Vera Sans with tiny circles placed within the characters to reduce the total ink/toner laid upon the paper.
Ecofont consumes about 20% less ink and it is free!

Visit Ecofont to learn more and to download this “green font”